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Authors: Emily Herbert
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CASH, after which followed a list of the various occasions on which Spencer had given exclusives to magazines such as Hello!.
The PCC was not impressed. ‘While this affects the extent to which he may now be entitled to privacy in respect of particular aspects of his own life, we do not believe that this leaves the press free to report on any matter regarding the Countess,’ it stated.
To make matters worse, Piers was then threatened with being sent to prison, albeit on the back of yet another crisis. The reason was a News Of The World exclusive exposing a drugs dealer, complete with his name, age, occupation and the town where he lived; the problem was that the dealer was, in fact, awaiting trial for criminal charges, and the piece was therefore in contempt of court – his details should never have been published. So, could matters get any worse? It seemed they could.
Piers was now truly having to take on board Kelvin MacKenzie’s contention that, if an editor was prepared todish it out, he should also be able to take it in a big way; he was accustomed to training a lens on the love lives of the big names of the day but rather less used to having the tables turned. He had publicly admitted that he was separated from his wife and, until June 1995, a few weeks after he’d been chastised by Murdoch, that had been that, but then a bizarre story emerged, linking him with a woman called Sheryl Kyle, now rather better known as Sheryl Gascoigne. Back then, she was Paul Gascoigne’s on-off girlfriend and would later become his wife. Piers was unavailable for comment to the London Evening Standard’ s ‘Londoner’s Diary’ where the story first appeared and the newspaper had to content itself with a comment from his mother.
‘I expect mums are the last to know,’ Gabrielle cheerfully observed.
Max Clifford also managed to get himself involved, announcing, ‘Piers and Sheryl were making a record together.’
With all the criticism he was receiving from every side, Piers refused to take it on the chin and flew into a rage. Just a day later, the ‘Londoner’s Diary’ printed a retraction, telling readers that Piers was furious – as the story was altogether untrue, especially the part about his making an album – and relaying that he had told them the news would upset his estranged wife and they’d had no business contacting his family. It might have seemed a bit rich, coming from the editor of the News of the World, but Piers was clearly fed up. Sheryl, too, confirmed that there was no truth in the story whatsoever.
Meanwhile, he was attempting to get on with business as usual, which that week involved buying up the story of Divine Brown, the prostitute who had recently been arrested alongside actor Hugh Grant, thus blowing out of the water Grant’s persona as the ultimate English gentleman. The News Of The World’ s rival paper, the People , then accused Piers of chequebook journalism, something he hotly denied. ‘What happened is that our reporter was on a Los Angeles TV show and was asked what he thought the story could be worth,’ he explained. ‘He speculated that it could be worth up to $100,000 or so, but we didn’t pay anything like that – it was not money that got the story, it was the speed at which we got to her. We used brilliant investigative journalism techniques to track her down.’
This wasn’t what he was used to, though: Piers had been doing so well for so long that to have people accuse him of entrapment (Richard Spring), intruding on the privacy of a sick woman (Victoria Spencer) and now using a fat chequebook rather than investigative techniques to land that week’s scoop must have been galling. He was more accustomed to being the Boy Wonder, not someone publicly chastised by Rupert Murdoch for bringing the profession into disrepute. Naturally, he wasn’t enjoying his editorship one jot at this stage.
People were beginning to tease him about recent events, too. When it was
The PCC was not impressed. ‘While this affects the extent to which he may now be entitled to privacy in respect of particular aspects of his own life, we do not believe that this leaves the press free to report on any matter regarding the Countess,’ it stated.
To make matters worse, Piers was then threatened with being sent to prison, albeit on the back of yet another crisis. The reason was a News Of The World exclusive exposing a drugs dealer, complete with his name, age, occupation and the town where he lived; the problem was that the dealer was, in fact, awaiting trial for criminal charges, and the piece was therefore in contempt of court – his details should never have been published. So, could matters get any worse? It seemed they could.
Piers was now truly having to take on board Kelvin MacKenzie’s contention that, if an editor was prepared todish it out, he should also be able to take it in a big way; he was accustomed to training a lens on the love lives of the big names of the day but rather less used to having the tables turned. He had publicly admitted that he was separated from his wife and, until June 1995, a few weeks after he’d been chastised by Murdoch, that had been that, but then a bizarre story emerged, linking him with a woman called Sheryl Kyle, now rather better known as Sheryl Gascoigne. Back then, she was Paul Gascoigne’s on-off girlfriend and would later become his wife. Piers was unavailable for comment to the London Evening Standard’ s ‘Londoner’s Diary’ where the story first appeared and the newspaper had to content itself with a comment from his mother.
‘I expect mums are the last to know,’ Gabrielle cheerfully observed.
Max Clifford also managed to get himself involved, announcing, ‘Piers and Sheryl were making a record together.’
With all the criticism he was receiving from every side, Piers refused to take it on the chin and flew into a rage. Just a day later, the ‘Londoner’s Diary’ printed a retraction, telling readers that Piers was furious – as the story was altogether untrue, especially the part about his making an album – and relaying that he had told them the news would upset his estranged wife and they’d had no business contacting his family. It might have seemed a bit rich, coming from the editor of the News of the World, but Piers was clearly fed up. Sheryl, too, confirmed that there was no truth in the story whatsoever.
Meanwhile, he was attempting to get on with business as usual, which that week involved buying up the story of Divine Brown, the prostitute who had recently been arrested alongside actor Hugh Grant, thus blowing out of the water Grant’s persona as the ultimate English gentleman. The News Of The World’ s rival paper, the People , then accused Piers of chequebook journalism, something he hotly denied. ‘What happened is that our reporter was on a Los Angeles TV show and was asked what he thought the story could be worth,’ he explained. ‘He speculated that it could be worth up to $100,000 or so, but we didn’t pay anything like that – it was not money that got the story, it was the speed at which we got to her. We used brilliant investigative journalism techniques to track her down.’
This wasn’t what he was used to, though: Piers had been doing so well for so long that to have people accuse him of entrapment (Richard Spring), intruding on the privacy of a sick woman (Victoria Spencer) and now using a fat chequebook rather than investigative techniques to land that week’s scoop must have been galling. He was more accustomed to being the Boy Wonder, not someone publicly chastised by Rupert Murdoch for bringing the profession into disrepute. Naturally, he wasn’t enjoying his editorship one jot at this stage.
People were beginning to tease him about recent events, too. When it was
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